Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Love & Olives by Jenna Evans Welch

3 reviews

shannasbooksnhooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

"No matter what happened, I'd keep searching until every piece had been found. Olive had always been good at that."
It feels like this book took me longer than it should have to read. I know it took only around 5 days (Aug. 3-8), but it felt like a long time. I feel like it's mostly due to the fact that I breezed through my 6 most recent reads - Carly Spade's Contemporary Mothos series - within a 5-6 day period.
But I really enjoyed this book. It was a sweet read. Honestly, I feel like the story encompassed many a child's dreams (inner child's dreams as well). Indiana Jones was one of my major film crushes as a child. This was another fantastic coming-of-age story from Jenna Evans Welch, and I felt like it was a great ending to the Love & series. I was half expecting to see Lina and/or Addie - or other supporting characters - from Love & Gelato and Love & Luck. I wasn't disappointed not seeing any of them, but, if I'm honest, it was still a bit of a letdown. I think Olive, "Liv," went through so much emotional turmoil in this book, and it was so well-represented.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Grief

Minor: Car accident, Miscarriage, and Self harm

navayiota's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This would be a great read because I love Greek mythology and such, so a book about finding Atlantis seemed like a perfect book for me. I can tell the author put a lot of effort in researching Atlantis and I appreciate it, however I wish they had focused a bit more on Greek people too. Like, the way real humans speak. The Greeks in this book felt cartoonish and embarrassing to read, as someone who grew up in Greece. "Bapou" was especially annoying. First of all, they use the wrong word, which yes they address and explain but the author has complete control over the story and they chose to consistently screw up a very basic word for no reason, thus misrepresenting the whole language. It might not sound like a big deal, but this is probably the most frequent Greek word in the book and it's wrong. If it was just that I probably would look past it, but "Bapou" was so badly written, I think for comedic purposes. He keeps repeating "Beautiful, welcome to santorini" in different tones depending on the context like a pokemon because they chose to make him not speak English. (even though a lot of older people here speak at least some very basic English, especially in islands where there are a lot of tourists)
Olive was an annoying and completely un self aware character who was frustrating to follow. Personally I hate reading about characters with no backbone and I think she was like that for way too long. The only reason I pushed through her whining was because I was excited to see what the author would do with Atlantis and whether they would find it or not. The filming and diving parts of the book were the most interesting in my opinion and the only time that I think her disorder was written well. (also the nightmares) 
Nikos, Olive's dad was probably the best written character, not because he was likeable (he is not) but because he is so.. Greek. In an actually realistic way. My dad is exactly like him, down to the way they talk to strangers and act around their kids. He was a highlight of the book, even though I hated reading about him lol. 
There's more stuff I want to write about but I'm tired and somewhat upset over this book. I had such high hopes. I definitely think most of these could have been solved by talking to a few Greeks and maybe getting a beta reader or two who have actually lived here.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Car accident

jude7's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Terminal illness

Minor: Car accident, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts